How many variations exist in the Ruy Lopez?

Guys, I watch some introductive videos on youtube abt Ruy Lopez. It looks like a positional opening (Is it??) As I think I suck at playing extremely open positions. I wanna switch to an e4 opening that is positional. Seems Ruy Lopez is a great choice. Can someone brief list all the names of the variations in Ruy Lopez for me plz?

A player could spend half a lifetime just on Ruy Lopez. To give you an idea...one instructional series I saw had 1 vu

1 volume on Open Games (1. e4 e5) excluding Ruy Lopez, and TWO volumes on Ruy Lopez

What? I don't understand 

Just observing that there was more content on the Ruy Lopez opening than ALL OTHER 1. e4 e5 openings. Sorry if it was unclear...I accidentally cut off my first comment and had to turn it into 2

I'm by no means a Ruy Lopez expert. Is it a positional opening though? Basically no opening is purely positional or tactical though - specific variations might be more one than the other, but not an entire opening. Just like others in chess, the Ruy Lopez has many open variations and many closed variations - it depends on how White and Black both play; you can try to steer the game state one way or the other, but you can keep it that way forever if your opponent doesn't want to cooperate. 

As for variations, maybe a database could come close but there are a lot. Wikipedia is good at listing the common variations for common chess openings - I'd start there just to get some names down and then study off of that springboard

Real opening study this deep is probably more like 2000+ rating level in chess though. sub-1200 is basically just opening principles and 1200-2000 or so is just knowing a few ideas and a few lines known; how deep depends on how high rated, but you essentially slowly build from what you know. 

Something like study the opening ideas, then memorized them up to move 5 in your favorite variation...fall for an opening trap or get a bad position...realize the computer claimed your move 6 was bad. You then experiment for an improvement on move 6, then months later someone gives you trouble on move 7 and you repeat the learning process. At 2000+ ish rating you might be doing "real opening theory study" by evaluating sidelines 10 moves + into the opening

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruy_Lopez Behold! Ruy Lopez Variations

WTF, what is that amount of variations? Why people play the ruy lopez!????? I don't understand if they are not a gm or a future gm (well, I wont play it tho)

It's considered a positional opening even though there are some very sharp tactical lines that both players can opt for (Marshall attack, Janisch gambit, etc). 

Other "mainline" openings have just as many variations - that is why! Italian Game, Scotch Game and so on are mainline openings with a ton of variations too, yet they are still good for beginners. 

The Queen's Gambit is a solid opening too, but this might even have twice this many variations because you must study the declined lines and the accepted lines - plus even more if you play the central variation with 3. e4 lol - there is a ton of study in many chess openings.

Why do beginners choose openings with so much theory then? Simple. No, really that is it xD 

They choose them because the ideas are simple and easy to follow. A beginner can easily memorize the popular moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 and then just use opening principles for the rest after where they stopped studying. Plus, this much theory existing (even if they never looked at it) means that they can work on this opening through grandmaster level (if they ever get there) and not have to change openings. 

Choosing a solid opening like the Ruy Lopez is better than a dubious opening. Compare to something like the Grob Gambit (begins with 1. g4). It is a crazy tactical mess in many lines, but you might be able to swindle unprepared players who get lost in the complications. What about grandmasters though? You might as well give them the win already if you play something this bad against them xD It would be annoying to fall in love with a dubious opening like this, study it a ton, use it with success until maybe 2000 rating opponents or so and then be forced to learn a different opening from scratch because no one falls for this at higher levels. (The people who have this experience usually just keep their favorite [but objectively bad] opening for a surprise weapon, but this isn't as good as learning an opening for years and building onto it in your main repertoire).

oh btw, you'll notice how this is a small number of variations xD See how "Berlin" is just one variation? Many sub variations exist and way past move 3. Berlin Wall/Berlin endgame is one of the most heavily studied positions! Nevertheless wikipedia does a good job at naming variations if you have no idea where to start, but it is not a chess database and doesn't go too deep other than naming the lines and short description on some common ideas; this is all you need to get a flavor of the opening though; it is perfect for beginners deciding if the opening feels like something they would be comfortable playing.

More than 1.